The How I Met Your Mother Blog

A few weeks ago I was contacted by a soldier, we’ll call him Carl (not his real name) who is currently serving in Iraq. He told me the following story of how much better his life has been since he and his fellow soldiers discovered the show:

So the other day, I got a random “Dude! Have you seen How I Met Your Mother?!” from my buddy. “Pfft, no thanks,” I said “I don’t really watch TV shows.” While walking to the chow hall a few days later with Johnny and my buddy Edgar, they couldn’t stop quoting it. It was like a “secret” that I didn’t know about.

Then fate delivered me a present: my other buddy Steve tells me he just got all three seasons on his hard drive. Still hesitant, I figured if I was bored, I could watch it. But I was already so busy with night guard watch that fitting in any extra media seemed impossible after our 12 hour shifts. A few more days go by and I decide to sit down and watch a few episodes mainly to say “Yeah I checked out the show! Can I be in your little circle of awesome?”. Well they said I wasn’t “seasoned enough” to be considered “in the know”. So I sat down the next night and watched a few more. Then it was over—I was hooked. I was so addicted, people were a little worried about me. I would get comments like “You watching that show? Did you even change out of your uniform?!”

While here in Iraq, I get to call my wife Carrissa every few days and get updates from the homefront. She had told me that I had seemed “down” to her these last few weeks. This rut is due to a temporal time warp that happens in Iraq. Every day, you work the same hours, do the same things, eat the same food, talk to the same friends. Every. Day. So we call it Groundhog’s day and the only way you know what day of the week it is, is by what food is being served in the chow hall.

One night I stayed up until 2:30AM watching the show, then woke up at 7AM and continued watching the show until 8AM where I had to go take a shower and go eat. As I’m walking to the chowhall, I’ve got this perma-grin on my face and, as I’m saluting officers, I can’t get rid of the smile. I call my wife later that morning, and she is wondering if my mood is chemically induced. I explained to her how it was a new show I’d discovered that was affecting me in a positive way and to not be worried. I also told her to start watching it because it would be something we could experience together even though we are separated physically. She was relieved that I seemed to be out of my rut and promised to watch the show.

I’ve tried to tell everyone I could about it, and one night, in our barracks of 200 soldiers, I had 3 people get the files from me so they could watch it too. One of the guys finished the entire series in 2 1/2 days. Insane!

So now I’m “in the circle” and Edgar, Johnny, and myself are always quoting jokes and lines from our favorite episodes. I told two of my co-workers a couple days ago that “Legendary” was going to be the new word to describe anything awesome, and they said it wouldn’t catch on, we’ll see about that. My thanks go out to all the people that made HIMYM happen.

Contacting me was an attempt to fulfill his mission of eventually getting in touch with the show’s creators. He wishes to tell them the story of how their show has brought happiness to those serving our country overseas and how it has offered a connection between him and his wife even though they’re far away. He hopes to share this story and maybe get a letter, or something signed by the cast, or even just DVDs of the show.

I was touched by Carl’s story. It’s easy to forget that the worst thing we’ve had to complain about is the writer’s strike while elsewhere there are those who have to be separated from their families and are forced to suffer the monotony that is described above. The fact that the show can reach not only us but those in Carl’s situation is a testament to what is really great about television. At the end of the day it isn’t ratings, or guest stars, or anything like that that makes a show a success. It’s the heart that makes people love it and How I Met Your Mother has the heart that it takes.

So here’s hoping that Carl succeeds in his attempts to contact CBS or Bays and Thomas. If you have any information on how he might get in touch with someone connected to the show, please email me at jd@have-you-met-ted.com and I will forward that information to him. Thank you.

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